Broad Channel Volies Lose Ambulance In WTC Collapse

Some of the Broad Channel Volunteers who marched in the Mardi Gras Parade last Labor Day were injured and their ambulance was destroyed when One World Trade Center collapsed last week.

By Howard Schwach

Like many other volunteer ambulance corps in the tri-state area, the volunteers from the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department responded with an ambulance and an unidentified crew of first responders and emergency medical technicians to the World Trade Center disaster in Manhattan.

The crew had parked their ambulance on Liberty Street as directed, right alongside One World Trade Center shortly prior to the building’s collapse.

When the building came down, the ambulance was crushed and buried under several feet of debris and plaster wall ash.

The crew, alerted by the roar of the building descending to the street, retreated from the scene.

All three were injured. One of the volies was hit so hard by the blast of the building coming down, he was reportedly knocked out of his boots. Another suffered a broken arm and the third hurt his back badly.

The three were taken by ferry to a New Jersey Hospital. Two were treated and released, the third remained in the hospital until late Wednesday afternoon.

While the ambulance crew was at the World Trade Center, one of the unit’s engines was stationed at a Howard Beach firehouse as a replacement for the city unit that is usually housed there. That unit had responded to the World Trade Center as well.